


Dating Skills

by QueenoftheHobbits



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bad date, But Not with Steve, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 04:30:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheHobbits/pseuds/QueenoftheHobbits
Summary: You have a pretty bad date...Steve has a few things to say.





	Dating Skills

“Wow..” You don’t hear Steve’s exclamation as the breath leaves him. You barely notice him sat next to your brother, Dustin, on the sofa with a couple of pizzas in front of them. You don’t notice your brother elbow him in the side or give him a look either.

“Big date tonight, sis?” You look up from sorting out your purse and turn to the two boys sat on the sofa looking at you over the top of it. You feel slightly self-conscious at your overly dressy state.

“....I promised i’d go on a date with Arthur and I can’t get out of it...so not really. But I figured i’d put some effort in.”

“You look great, Y/N...really great.”

“Thanks, Steve...” You wish you were going on a date with Steve and not Arthur, but your luck had never been perfect. Arthur was a lovely person, but he wasn’t someone you were really interested in...but you’d promised and you couldn’t bring yourself to not turn up. 

“I’ll be back by 11, if you see mum can you let her know?”

“Sure, whatever” You role your eyes at his dismissal, but know that Dustin will do as you say. Whether he’s overly enthusiastic about it or not.

Your date does not go as planned. Not only is Arthur an hour late, turning up just as you’re about to give up and leave, but he is awkward, stumbling, and insults you and your friends accidentally on multiple occasions. Perhaps on someone else his awkwardness and his accidental insults would be endearing, sweet, but on him it just makes you want to get up and leave mid-meal. You don’t, however and instead refuse a second date and a ride home at the end. 

Stumbling into your house at 9, much earlier than you had predicted, you had expected Steve to have gone home and Dustin to be in his room. Instead you found Dustin asleep on the sofa, and Steve sat besides him eating cold pizza and watching one of the movies you had on VHS tape.

“Hey...” You slump down into the armchair beside the sofa, greeting Steve with a flat voice. You’re tired. The effort of dressing up was not worth the time you spent with Arthur and on top of that you felt bad for telling him you weren’t interested in going on any more dates. 

“How was the date?” You’re both talking quietly, well aware of the fact that your brother is fast asleep and doesn’t look like a menace for once. 

“Absolutely terrible.” You slip your shoes off and pull your feet up underneath yourself. You’re both physically and emotionally exhausted. You always thought dates were supposed to be fun, not feel like you’re pulling teeth. 

“Oh...”

“I didn’t really want to go anyway...but..”

“I thought you liked Arthur...” You swore you heard ‘even if he’s a dick’ being muttered underneath his breath, but chose to ignore it, in favour of answering his own spoken question. 

“He’s a perfectly nice guy, but I was never really interested, but I said I would and I couldn’t back out without looking like a bitch.” You hadn’t wanted to put Arthur in an uncomfortable or upsetting position, not after you’d said you’d go. But, now you wished you’d had the balls to just say you weren’t interested in going. 

“What made the date so bad? Other than it being with a guy you don’t really like...” 

“He was an hour late to start...which was uncomfortable and everyone was watching me or I felt like they were watching me...then when he finally did show up he was awkward and he kept insulting me or you or Dustin or Nancy without meaning too...or he kept saying things that made me want to hit him...” There were multiple moments where you contemplated yelling at him in front of the restaurant, but chose instead to blame his words on nerves or awkwardness rather than a real intent to upset you. 

“Asshole.”

“Steve...he’s not that bad.” The hostility is clear, you’ve heard that tone and seen that scowl directed at Billy on more than one occasion to know that he means it when he calls Arthur an asshole. 

“He was an hour late, Y/N. Who asks someone out and then turns up an  _hour_ late to a date? He could have phoned the restaurant, told them to tell you he was running late, but no just left you there.” Of course Steve had a point, it was pretty easy to call the restaurant and let you know that he’d be there late, especially if he knew he was going to be more than 15 minutes late. But you were teenagers, not everyone thought to do that, right? Not everyone was as considerate as Steve seemed to think he was...

“I know...but it can happen to anyone.”

“Also Arthur’s not a nice guy, he’s a dick. All he does is make fun of people. So those ‘accidental insults’ not so accidental.” 

“No...?” You had never seen Arthur make fun on anyone, he always seemed so nice...You hadn’t once heard or seen him be anything but nice to people, but then how often were you really around him? 

“Trust me, he does. He hangs around Tommy and sometimes even Billy. He’s not a nice guy.” Tommy and Billy were cruel, they only treated people nicely if they wanted to get in their pants or up their skirts.

“Oh...”

The two of you sit in silence for a moment, you contemplating how little you really knew about Arthur and him wondering why you went out with the guy in the first place. 

He’s looking at his hands, a little nervous, when he starts to speak again, “Y’know, not all your dates will be like that...some of us know how to make a good date.” You didn’t doubt that, something told you that Steve would do anything to make someone he liked happy. Nancy had seemed happy for so long...she never complained that he was late or that he made fun of her friends or herself. 

“Oh really? I suppose that’s your expertise then?” You smile at him as you catch his eye. He’s cute and your crush is still ever present. You’re also not so oblivious as to where this conversation is going and where it might lead. 

“I could...show you sometime? If you’d like...?” 

“You know what? I think I want to see your date skills in action...so yeah, i’d like that.”

 


End file.
